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The largest ever trial of adult stem cell therapy in heart attack patients has begun at The London Chest Hospital in the UK.

Heart disease is the world's leading cause of death. Globally, more than 17 million people died from heart disease last year. In the US, over 1 million people suffer a heart attack each year, and about half of them die.

Heart attacks are usually caused by a clot in the coronary artery, which stops the supply of blood and oxygen to the heart. If the blockage is not treated within a few hours, then it causes the heart muscle to die.

The stem cell trial - titled "The effect of intracoronary reinfusion of bone marrow-derived mononuclear cells (BM-MNC) on allcause mortality in acute myocardial infarction," or "BAMI" for short - has been made possible due to a 5.9 million ($8.1 million) award from the European Commission.

The full study involves 19 partners across France, Germany, Italy, Finland, Denmark, Spain, Belgium, Poland, the Czech Republic and the UK.

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'Largest ever' trial of adult stem cells in heart attack patients begins

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Paul Herron and Anne Hodgkinson wake up every day knowing their daughter could die.

Their 4-year-old, Katie, has cancer, and for the second time in her young life she is fighting to stay alive.

Shes scared. Shes terrified, Herron told the Star from Torontos Ronald McDonald House, where the Cambridge family is currently staying so Katie can get treatment at the Hospital for Sick Children.

For Anne and I, its been a parents worst nightmare.

When Katie was just 15 months old, she was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia. But after 25 months of intensive treatment, including lumbar punctures, bone marrow aspirations, chemotherapy and steroids, Katie fought the cancer into remission.

Finally, the family thought, they could say goodbye to hospital beds and the hours spent pacing hallways waiting for results. Finally, they could be normal.

But last November, the life they had built for themselves crumbled once again. The cancer was back, and this time Katie would need a stem cell donor.

The first time, we never made it public. We kept to ourselves, said Herron. But because this time she needs a stem cell donation, we had to get the word out.

No one in the family is a match, and the national registry has yet to turn up a name. This Saturday, Katies supporters will host a stem cell donor clinic at the Cambridge Sports Park from 1 to 5 p.m. All thats required for testing is a cheek swab.

(Stem cells are collected from a matching donors bone marrow or blood after the donor has given informed consent and undergone medical tests to encourage good health and compatibility.)

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Stem cell donor clinic planned for 4-year-old battling leukemia again

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10 hours ago

Professor Sami Franssila is participating in a research project that could, if successful, revolutionise the treatment of coronary thrombosis and brain damage.

You cannot walk into the clean rooms of Micronova with your snowy boots.

'We fabricate nano-scale objects so any undesired particles, including dust, must be smaller than the objects being made,' Sami Franssila, Professor of Microtechnology explains and points at the researchers working in their protective clothing on the other side of the window.

'The floor is vibration isolated and the air conditioning keeps the temperature and humidity between precise limits.'

Accelerating stem cell differentiation

Precision is also required in the large strategic research opening by Tekes which Franssila and his research group are participating in with the University of Helsinki and Helsinki University Central Hospital. The project has an ambitious goal: getting damaged organs to heal themselves. Achieving this goal requires drugs that are targeted at an organ, such as the heart or the brain, using nanotechnology. The drugs then locally enhance the differentiation of stem cells so that the necessary new heart or nerve cells are created.

'The idea is to heal cell damages locally,' Sami Franssila explains.

'One of the greatest challenges is determining the essential chemicals which affect the differentiation of cells. The work requires micro and nanotechnology as we, in collaboration with the University of Helsinki Division of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, have to develop an analysis method that is so sensitive that it can be used to examine extremely small amounts of substance consisting of as few as one thousand molecules. In addition to sensitivity, the method also has to be accurate to counterbalance the natural biological fluctuation of the samples taken from the cells,' Franssila continues.

Ten years of cooperation

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Nanotechnology to help in healing hearts

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11 hours ago Blood stem cell cultures: Blood stem cells from colonies (cell clusters) in vitro consisting of different blood cells. Nine blood stem cell colonies are illustrated in the image, which have developed into differentiated cell types, particularly into white blood cells (leukocytes).Credit: Department of Clinical Research of the University of Bern, Tumor-Immunology research group

Researchers in Bern, Germany, have discovered that, during a viral infection, immune cells control the blood stem cells in the bone marrow and therefore also the body's own defences. The findings could allow for new forms of therapy, such as for bone marrow diseases like leukaemia.

During a viral infection, the body needs various defence mechanisms amongst other things, a large number of white blood cells (leukocytes) must be produced in the bone marrow within a short period of time. In the bone marrow, stem cells are responsible for this task: the blood stem cells. In addition to white blood cells, blood stem cells also produce red blood cells and platelets.

The blood stem cells are located in specialized niches in the bone marrow and are surrounded by specialized niche cells. During an infection, the blood stem cells must complete two tasks: they must first recognise that more blood cells have to be produced and, secondly, they must recognise what kind of.

Now, for the first time, researchers at the Department of Medical Oncology at the University of Bern and Bern University Hospital headed by Prof. Adrian Ochsenbein have investigated how the blood stem cells in the bone marrow are regulated by the immune system's so-called T killer cells during a viral infection. As this regulation mechanism mediated by the immune system also plays an important role in other diseases such as leukaemia, these findings could lead to novel therapeutic approaches. The study is being published in the peer-reviewed journal Cell Stem Cell today.

T Killer cells trigger defences

One function of T killer cells is to "patrol" in the blood and remove pathogen-infected cells. However, they also interact with the blood stem cells in the bone marrow. The oncologists in Bern were able to show that messenger substances secreted by the T killer cells modulate the niche cells. In turn, the niche cells control the production and also the differentiation of the blood stem cells.

This mechanism is important in order to fight pathogens such as viruses or bacteria. However, various forms of the bone marrow disease leukaemia are caused by a malignant transformation of exactly these blood stem cells. This leads to the formation of so-called leukaemia stem cells. In both cases, the mechanisms are similar: the "good" mechanism regulates healthy blood stem cells during an infection, whilst the "bad" one leads to the multiplication of leukaemia stem cells. This in turn leads to a progression of the leukaemia.

This similarity has already been investigated in a previous project by the same group of researchers. "We hope that this will enable us to better understand and fight infectious diseases as well as bone marrow diseases such as leukaemia," says Carsten Riether from the Department of Clinical Research at the University of Bern and the Department of Medical Oncology at Bern University Hospital and the University of Bern.

Explore further: New discovery on early immune system development

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Immune cells regulate blood stem cells

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Schizophrenia has long been known to be highly heritable and is present in approximately 1% of the population. Researchers have been following two paths in their pursuit of identifying schizophrenia risk genes.

Initially, they studied common gene variants that, individually, only increase the risk for schizophrenia by a few percent, perhaps increasing the likelihood of developing schizophrenia from a 10 out of a 1000 chance to an 11 or 12 out of a 1000 chance.

More recently, research has identified gene variants that are rare in the population but, when present, more substantially increase the risk for developing schizophrenia. For example, in the current issue of Biological Psychiatry, a large collaborating group of international scientists, led by Dr. Jennifer Mulle, an Assistant Professor at Emory, report a 1.4 megabase duplication on chromosome 7 (7q11.23) that increases the risk for schizophrenia over 10 times, i.e., to 100 out of a 1000 chance (10%).

"We also found it interesting that three different disorders (schizophrenia, autism, and intellectual development) that strike at different times and present in different ways, have genetic links to this same region on chromosome 7," commented Mulle. "Our findings support the notion of a neuro-developmental link between these disorders."

In this same issue, Dr. George Kirov at Cardiff University and colleagues scanned the genome for copy number gene variants, i.e., where abnormal numbers of gene copies exist. They studied 70 of these variants, all previously implicated in schizophrenia and/or early-onset developmental disorders, such as developmental delay, intellectual deficit and autism spectrum disorders (DD/ID/ASD). They then compared the risk for carriers of these variants to develop one or more of these disorders, i.e. their genetic penetrance.

"The result might be unexpected for many: the penetrance for schizophrenia is several times lower than for the group of DD/ID/ASD. The total penetrance for any of these disorders is quite high, ranging from 10% for duplications at 16p13.11 to nearly 100% for the velocardiofacial syndrome region on chromosome 22. These findings will have implications for genetic counselling of carriers," said Kirov.

"It seems that we are at a critical point in the genetics of schizophrenia -- the identification of rare gene variants that substantially increase the risk for schizophrenia," said Dr. John Krystal, Editor of Biological Psychiatry. "However, we have a very limited understanding of how these genes alter brain development to produce schizophrenia and other disorders. This knowledge would seem to hold clues about mechanisms of prevention and treatment."

In addition, scientists do not yet understand why the genetics of schizophrenia is not tightly aligned with the symptoms of schizophrenia. In other words, gene variants that increase the risk for schizophrenia increase the risk for other disorders, such as developmental delay, autism, and bipolar disorder.

"The failure of our genome to follow DSM-V is not simply a shortcoming of our diagnostic manual, rather it is yet another reminder that there are fundamental aspects of the biology of psychiatric disorders that we do not understand," added Krystal.

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Schizophrenia: Gathering clues to rare gene variants contributing to disease

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5:10 How To Survive Armageddon, Peter Kling 20Feb2014
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9:10 How To Survive Armageddon, Peter Kling 20Feb2014
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PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

21-Feb-2014

Contact: Vicki Cohn vcohn@liebertpub.com 914-740-2156 Mary Ann Liebert, Inc./Genetic Engineering News

New Rochelle, NY, February 21, 2014Even small increases in blood sugar caused by a diet high in carbohydrates can be detrimental to brain health. Recent reports in medical literature link carbohydrate calorie-rich diets to a greater risk for brain shrinkage, dementia and Alzheimer's disease, impaired cognition, and other disorders. David Perlmutter, MD, best-selling author of Grain Brain, explores this important topic in a provocative interview in Alternative and Complementary Therapies from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers. The article is available free on the Alternative and Complementary Therapies website.

Dr. Perlmutter, a board-certified neurologist and fellow of the American College of Nutrition, has just been appointed Editor-in-Chief of a new peer-reviewed journal, Brain and Gut, that will debut in summer 2014. The journal will publish leading-edge research dedicated to exploring a whole systems approach to health and disease from the intimate relationship between the brain and the digestive systems.

In the interview "Rethinking Dietary Approaches for Brain Health," Dr. Perlmutter says, "We live with this notion that a calorie is a calorie, but at least in terms of brain health, and I believe for the rest of the body as well, there are very big differences between our sources of calories in terms of the impact on our health. Carbohydrate calories, which elevate blood glucose, are dramatically more detrimental to human physiology, and specifically to human health, than are calories derived from healthful sources of fat."

Dr. Perlmutter will explore how brain health and cognitive function are linked to nutrition in his presentation, "The Care and Feeding of Your Brain," to be delivered at the 2014 Integrative Healthcare Symposium taking place now in New York City.

###

About the Journal

Alternative and Complementary Therapies is a bimonthly journal that publishes original articles, reviews, and commentaries evaluating alternative therapies and how they can be integrated into clinical practice. Topics include botanical medicine, vitamins and supplements, nutrition and diet, mind-body medicine, acupuncture and traditional Chinese medicine, Ayurveda, indigenous medicine systems, homeopathy, naturopathy, yoga and meditation, manual therapies, energy medicine, and spirituality and health. Tables of content and a sample issue may be viewed on the Alternative and Complementary Therapies website.

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Does a diet high in carbohydrates increase your risk of dementia?

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PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

21-Feb-2014

Contact: Sophie Mohin smohin@liebertpub.com 914-740-2100 x2254 Mary Ann Liebert, Inc./Genetic Engineering News

New Rochelle, NY, February 20, 2014A new era of manufacturing is upon us. Recent developments in 3D printing and additive manufacturing technologies are set to usher in the next generation of industrial competitiveness. To address the rapid advances and potential of this groundbreaking new technology, Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers has released an exclusive preview issue of our new peer-reviewed journal 3D Printing and Additive Manufacturing (3DP).

Editor-in-Chief Dr. Hod Lipson, Director of Cornell University's Creative Machines Lab at the Sibley School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, and his expert Editorial Board invite you to view this exclusive preview issue. The Journal will explore emerging challenges and opportunities in additive manufacturing, ranging from new developments of processes and materials, to novel applications in new areas, such as health, medicine, and bio-printing.

To maximize the global impact of this important forum, the articles will be translated into Mandarin Chinese and appear alongside the English version.

"This powerful new journal provides a much-needed multidisciplinary forum on the rapidly evolving technologies of 3D printing engineering and additive manufacturing on a global scale," says Dr. Lipson. "3DP provides a much-needed professional forum for professionals interested in 3D printing across diverse fields, to work towards establishing the next industrial revolution. This journal provides biologists, engineers, materials specialists, and computer scientists a common meeting place."

3DP also addresses the important questions surrounding this powerful and growing field, including issues in policy and law, intellectual property, data standards, safety and liability, environmental impact, social, economic, and humanitarian implications, and emerging business models at the industrial and consumer scales.

###

Contact: Sophie Mohin, Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., (914) 740-2100, smohin@liebertpub.com

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3-D Printing and Additive Manufacturing: Preview issue of groundbreaking peer-reviewed journal now available

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Lot 19 Warner Beef Genetics

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Lot 89 Warner Beef Genetics

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Lot 83 Warner Beef Genetics

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Wham City Lecture Series: KEVIN BLACKISTONE on "Genetics", (Part 1)
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By: Thomas Kessler

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Wham City Lecture Series: KEVIN BLACKISTONE on "Genetics", (Part 2)
Shot by Tom Kessler.

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PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

21-Feb-2014

Contact: Peter Hull phull@clemson.edu 843-209-8341 Clemson University

GREENWOOD, S.C. A new partnership will establish formal collaboration among genetic researchers and Clemson University faculty at the Greenwood Genetic Center and Self Regional Healthcare, expanding an already successful working relationship.

Self Regional Healthcare will support the Clemson University Center for Human Genetics with a gift of $5.6 million over three years. The gift consists of an initial contribution of $2 million for the center's facilities and a subsequent contribution of $3.6 million to support research in genetics and human diagnostics at the facility located on the Greenwood Genetic Center campus.

"Today's announcement will create a new pipeline for genetic research," said John Pillman, chairman of the Self Regional board of trustees. "The collaboration of these three partners will ultimately connect genetic therapeutics research to patients."

Jim Pfeiffer, president and chief executive officer of Self Regional, said the partnership will accelerate the rate of innovation in genetic medicine. "This is what I like to call a win-win-win scenario," said Pfeiffer.

Steve Skinner, director of the Greenwood Genetic Center, said such collaborations are crucial to turning research advances into clinically available therapies for patients, not only in Greenwood and across South Carolina, but globally.

"This collaboration is a major step forward for patients as we combine the resources and strengths of each institution: Self's commitment to patient care, Clemson's expertise in basic scientific research and our experience with genetic disorders and treatment," Skinner said.

Self Regional and the Genetic Center have had an affiliation agreement since 1975 with the Genetic Center's clinical faculty serving as the Department of Medical Genetics for Self Regional.

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Self Regional Healthcare, Clemson, Genetic Center create national genetics research hub

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Klaxton Industries - Gene Therapy
A Company that I wish was Real.

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Tomorrow #39;s Promise for a Cure: Ontario Spinal Cord Injury Research Network (OSCIRN)
OSCIRN is a collaborative network of clinicians and scientists working together on topics related to spinal cord injury to improve quality of life and reduce...

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Why orthodox medicine must change - the need for preventative/regenerative medicine - Phil Micans
Most people realize that the world #39;s population is at the same time expanding and getting older and that these issues present many challenges. This lecture a...

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PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

20-Feb-2014

Contact: Deborah Williams-Hedges debwms@caltech.edu 626-395-3227 California Institute of Technology

In the battle against infection, immune cells are the body's offense and defensesome cells go on the attack while others block invading pathogens. It has long been known that a population of blood stem cells that resides in the bone marrow generates all of these immune cells. But most scientists have believed that blood stem cells participate in battles against infection in a delayed way, replenishing immune cells on the front line only after they become depleted.

Now, using a novel microfluidic technique, researchers at Caltech have shown that these stem cells might be more actively involved, sensing danger signals directly and quickly producing new immune cells to join the fight.

"It has been most people's belief that the bone marrow has the function of making these cells but that the response to infection is something that happens locally, at the infection site," says David Baltimore, president emeritus and the Robert Andrews Millikan Professor of Biology at Caltech. "We've shown that these bone marrow cells themselves are sensitive to infection-related molecules and that they respond very rapidly. So the bone marrow is actually set up to respond to infection."

The study, led by Jimmy Zhao, a graduate student in the UCLA-Caltech Medical Scientist Training Program, will appear in the April 3 issue of the journal Cell Stem Cell.

In the work, the researchers show that blood stem cells have all the components needed to detect an invasion and to mount an inflammatory response. They show, as others have previously, that these cells have on their surface a type of receptor called a toll-like receptor. The researchers then identify an entire internal response pathway that can translate activation of those receptors by infection-related molecules, or danger signals, into the production of cytokines, signaling molecules that can crank up immune-cell production. Interestingly, they show for the first time that the transcription factor NF-B, known to be the central organizer of the immune response to infection, is part of that response pathway.

To examine what happens to a blood stem cell once it is activated by a danger signal, the Baltimore lab teamed up with chemists from the lab of James Heath, the Elizabeth W. Gilloon Professor and professor of chemistry at Caltech. They devised a microfluidic chipprinted in flexible silicon on a glass slide, complete with input and output ports, control valves, and thousands of tiny wellsthat would enable single-cell analysis. At the bottom of each well, they attached DNA molecules in strips and introduced a flow of antibodiespathogen-targeting proteins of the immune systemthat had complementary DNA. They then added the stem cells along with infection-related molecules and incubated the whole sample. Since the antibodies were selected based on their ability to bind to certain cytokines, they specifically captured any of those cytokines released by the cells after activation. When the researchers added a secondary antibody and a dye, the cytokines lit up. "They all light up the same color, but you can tell which is which because you've attached the DNA in an orderly fashion," explains Baltimore. "So you've got both visualization and localization that tells you which molecule was secreted." In this way, they were able to measure, for example, that the cytokine IL-6 was secreted most frequentlyby 21.9 percent of the cells tested.

"The experimental challenges here were significantwe needed to isolate what are actually quite rare cells, and then measure the levels of a dozen secreted proteins from each of those cells," says Heath. "The end result was sort of like putting on a new pair of glasseswe were able to observe functional properties of these stem cells that were totally unexpected."

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A changing view of bone marrow cells

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AP/February 20, 2014

BOSTON (AP) The family of a teenager who almost lost a leg in the Boston Marathon bombings has started a fund to explore limb regeneration and the use of stem cells to regrow bones and skin.

Gillian Renys parents started the fund with an undisclosed sum and have formed a team for this years marathon to raise more. The goal is $3 million to fund research intended to help others at risk of amputation.

Reny, as well her parents Audrey Epstein Reny and Steven Reny, havent spoken publicly about their ordeal, but are coming forward now in interviews with The Boston Globe and WCVB-TV to talk about the Gillian Reny Stepping Strong Fund.

Both of Renys legs were injured in the April blast, and doctors were not sure they could save her mangled lower right leg.

I knew from seeing the destruction of my legs that something very serious had happened, Reny said.

Reny was standing near the finish line with her parents to watch her sister complete the race when twin bombs detonated, killing three people and injuring more than 260 others.

Reny, now a 19-year-old freshman at the University of Pennsylvania, is still rehabilitating but is able to walk on her own after undergoing several surgeries.

Initially, doctors did not know if Renys leg could be saved, said plastic surgeon Dr. Eric Halvorson.

But Halvorson found that a vital nerve was undamaged, and tests showed that major blood vessels were largely intact. Reny spent several weeks at Brigham & Womens Hospital and within two months recovered enough to attend her graduation from Buckingham Brown & Nichols School on crutches.

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Supporters of Californias multibillion-dollar stem cell program plan to ask for $5 billion more to bring the fruits of research to patients.

Robert Klein, a leader of the 2004 initiative campaign that established the program, said Thursday hes going to be talking with California voters about the proposal. If the public seems receptive, backers will work to get an initiative on the 2016 ballot to extend funding for the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine

Klein outlined the proposal Thursday at UC San Diego Moores Cancer Center, during a symposium on how to speed research to patient care.

Since cancer cells and stem cells share some underlying characteristics, CIRM has funded research into those similarities, including the work of Moores Cancer Center researchers David Cheresh and Catriona Jamieson.

Klein said supporters, including researchers, patients and patient advocates need to educate the public about the benefits of funding stem cell research, and the results to date. A former chairman of CIRM, Klein is no longer formally affiliated with the agency but continues to support its work.

No stem cell treatments funded by CIRM have been approved, but patients have benefited in other ways. CIRM-funded research into cancer stem cells led to a clinical trial of a drug that caused remission of a bone marrow cancer in Sandra Dillon, a patient of Jamiesons. Moreover, California has vaulted into prominence in regenerative medicine, and the field has also provided a new growth engine for the states large biotech industry.

Though CIRM has been praised for advancing quality research, it has been criticized for being slow to fund commercialization by life science companies.

In addition, CIRM has been criticized for a lack of transparency and conflicts of interest in how it awards grants. The agency revamped its policies last year to forbid members of its governing oversight committee from voting on proposals to fund research at their own institutions.

California voters set aside $3 billion in bond money for CIRM in 2004 under Proposition 71. The money is expected to run out around 2017, so Klein and other supporters have been preparing to go back to the public. The amount paid back will be $6 billion, including interest over the life of the bonds, Klein noted. So the $5 billion for CIRM would require a $10 billion bond measure.

Can it be done again? Klein asked. If we continue to have the extraordinary results the scientists and research institutes are presenting, as well as the biotech sector.

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$5B initiative proposed for stem cell research

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Supporters of Californias multibillion-dollar stem cell program plan to ask for $5 billion more to bring the fruits of research to patients.

Robert Klein, a leader of the 2004 initiative campaign that established the program, said Thursday hes going to be talking with California voters about the proposal. If the public seems receptive, backers will work to get an initiative on the 2016 ballot to extend funding for the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine

Klein outlined the proposal Thursday at UC San Diego Moores Cancer Center, during a symposium on how to speed research to patient care.

Since cancer cells and stem cells share some underlying characteristics, CIRM has funded research into those similarities, including the work of Moores Cancer Center researchers David Cheresh and Catriona Jamieson.

Klein said supporters, including researchers, patients and patient advocates need to educate the public about the benefits of funding stem cell research, and the results to date. A former chairman of CIRM, Klein is no longer formally affiliated with the agency but continues to support its work.

No stem cell treatments funded by CIRM have been approved, but patients have benefited in other ways. CIRM-funded research into cancer stem cells led to a clinical trial of a drug that caused remission of a bone marrow cancer in Sandra Dillon, a patient of Jamiesons. Moreover, California has vaulted into prominence in regenerative medicine, and the field has also provided a new growth engine for the states large biotech industry.

Though CIRM has been praised for advancing quality research, it has been criticized for being slow to fund commercialization by life science companies.

In addition, CIRM has been criticized for a lack of transparency and conflicts of interest in how it awards grants. The agency revamped its policies last year to forbid members of its governing oversight committee from voting on proposals to fund research at their own institutions.

California voters set aside $3 billion in bond money for CIRM in 2004 under Proposition 71. The money is expected to run out around 2017, so Klein and other supporters have been preparing to go back to the public. The amount paid back will be $6 billion, including interest over the life of the bonds, Klein noted. So the $5 billion for CIRM would require a $10 billion bond measure.

Can it be done again? Klein asked. If we continue to have the extraordinary results the scientists and research institutes are presenting, as well as the biotech sector.

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$5 billion initiative proposed for stem cell research

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Laminine Testimonial - Stroke
Laminine is availabe in the Philippines!!! "The Closest Alternative To Stem Cell Therapy..." "The miracle formula from a 9-day-old fertilized hen eggs" For M...

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